I’m not at all clear on why this is a good idea:
Linden Lab, the company behind “Second Life,” says it is implementing voice-over-Internet software that will let the thousands of people online at any given moment talk to each other over their computers’ microphones and speakers.
– `Second Life’ gets chatty – Yahoo! News
All that noise is the last thing I need.
I rely on sound a lot to augment my meat space existence. Having it in virtual space could help me feel “there”. Of course it would be nice to have fine control on what sounds you want to hear and not hear.
But the thing is, I don’t want to feel like *I* am there. What I like about SL is the ability to create new identities, new spaces, new relationships. Having people’s real voices seems un-virtual.
Hello Ruby,
I think your most recent comment captures something important about why voice in Second Life is a bad idea. I had a bit of a rant about this myself, and then discovered this excellent article by Richard Bartle, which puts it far more succinctly than I could.
Thought you might find this interesting: William Gibson on Sony’s ‘Home’ and Second Life. He’s not a big fan, basically because they’re corporate-run, not interstitial.